New Buddy an old hand

Actor shouldn't miss a beat as late replacement

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 3, 2008 at 3:42 p.m.

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Special to the Rocky

Bennett Dunn has been cast as Buddy Holly in the past.

Things you might not want to do in life:

* Get left at the altar;

* Cater a shrimp scampi dinner for 300, only to realize that night that the organization was a collective of Orthodox rabbis;

* Step in as the leading man of a musical with only four days left of rehearsal.

Bennett Dunn will take the final option, with some trepidation. Dunn, who has played the title role in Buddy . . . The Buddy Holly Story twice before (including the national tour), arrived in Denver June 30 after closing a show in Philadelphia the day before.

He's replacing local rockabilly musician Eddie Clendenning, who left the show because of a discomfort with the love scenes.

"Eddie felt there were certain things he was uncomfortable with," said director Rod A. Lansberry. "Behind his guitar, he could wipe the room, but then the other things, it was just not common to him."

"As much as doing the project means to me, it doesn't mean losing my marriage," says Clendenning, who had been warming up to his first acting role.

"I felt like I was really getting there, and the cast, they were really helping me along," he says. "All the feedback I got was, I was really starting to do well."

Lansberry, though, maintained that a little onstage PDA was integral to the story.

"If you don't see the emotional side of Buddy Holly, it just is one big, long concert," he says.

"He's great," Lansberry says of Clendenning. "He just has such a perfect, natural quality, and what immediately caught me was his demeanor and style is so perfectly '50s. There's no pretense in it. And his vocal style and his ability to play were incredible, but he'd never been onstage before, so there was obviously a lot of concern.

"It's disappointing. I'm sorry that it's not going to work for him, but I completely understand it, and it's not really that uncommon."

Lansberry himself has let performers out of their contracts when they got better or bigger jobs. This time, it wasn't leaving for something, though.

Nine days before the first performance, Lansberry was looking for a new actor - one who could sing and play the guitar as well. He looked to Bennett Dunn, who had been unavailable for the role because he was performing in Philadelphia for the first two weeks of rehearsal. That was suddenly not an issue.

"Bennett was definitely my favorite when I auditioned in New York," Lansberry says. "Eddie was still my first choice. But I really couldn't consider him (Dunn) because he had a conflict."

Lansberry sent Bennett the edited script with notes about changes while the performer was still in Philadelphia, and put on an optimistic face.

"My stomach has been in better shape, yes," Lansberry says. "The one good thing is that Bennett has done the show before."

Dunn, who had a few days to think between hearing he might get the job and hearing he did, hovered somewhere between excitement and panic.

"I was stunned," he says.

"I didn't think that was going to happen. I was thinking positively, hopefully this guy (Clendenning) will come through for them. I know how hard it is to get somebody at the last second."

He has a history of last-minute changes on this show, though. Dunn was hired as the fourth Cricket and Buddy Holly's understudy for the national tour. In the second week of performances, the lead slid across the stage on his knees and tore a ligament. Dunn was in the lead.

For this production, he expected to spend most of his rehearsal time on technical aspects - where to stand, how to hit his cues. There was also the question of how a cast that had had two weeks to bond would react to a newcomer.

"I'm going to not think about that so much and concentrate on my task at hand and try to show up and be as professional as possible," Dunn says.

"The main thing is, I just don't want to let them down. I'm the backup guy, and where do they go after this?"

bornsteinl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5101

• August 5, 2008

  3:47 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Nancyk writes:

  My friend and I attended the pre-show BBQ on Friday night, August 1st. After dinner, we happened upon “Buddy” (Bennett Dunn) standing in line at the Will Call desk. We had a brief conversation with him and I can tell you, this was the nicest, most level headed young man, with no egotism one sometimes finds in the theatre. What a delight it was to see him on stage after personally meeting him. Too bad for Mr. Clendenning and hurray for the Arvada Events Center! That Mr. Dunn was suddenly available was a gift, for sure!

  Director Lansberry, your first choice was well founded. The entire cast displayed their great talent and seemed to work well together. Thank you cast and crew for a wonderful and entertaining evening!

  I would like to make a request on behalf of baby-boomers, to continue arranging and directing more musicals of this nature. We were, indeed, standing in the isles, enjoying the wonderful music!
  Nancyk, Boulder

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